THE coastguard was called out twice in the early hours of Wednesday after bad weather resulted in a yacht being dragged towards rocks in the Plockton and Loch Kishorn areas.
The alarm was first sounded around 1.18am after the coastguard received an emergency message from a yacht in the Plockton area whose anchor was dragging, which had resulted in the propeller getting fouled and losing propulsion.
The volunteer crew with Kyle RNLI were met with windy conditions and rough seas although arrived on scene around 1.40am, by which time the yacht had found a sheltered place to anchor overnight.
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The lone sailor onboard the yacht did not require any assistance at that point so the lifeboat returned to Kyle.
However, the alarm was then sounded again at 4.26am after conditions deteriorated further, resulting in the same yacht being dragged towards the rocks.
The lifeboat arrived on scene at 4.35am, and it was decided the safest course of action for the sailor onboard the yacht, was to take the casualty vessel under tow to a safe location.
The crew managed to safely establish the tow despite the weather conditions, and took the vessel into Plockton harbour. As they reached the harbour, Portree lifeboat, which had also been launched, arrived on scene.
Once the yacht was safely moored in Plockton bay, both lifeboats departed the scene with Kyle lifeboat arriving back on station at 6.30am, where the boat was washed down, refuelled and made ready for service.
Jonathon MacKinnon, helm for Kyle RNLI lifeboat says "The sailor onboard the yacht was extremely experienced, and did a good job to single handedly sail the vessel through some pretty bad weather and find some shelter in Loch Kishorn.
"Unfortunately the worsening weather resulted in him ending up in a tricky situation, but our volunteer crew performed brilliantly in some pretty horrendous conditions and have now gone for a well earned nap before they have to head out to their day jobs".
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